Ephemera are small printed items intended for a short, or ephemeral, lifespan. These include pamphlets, flyers, campaign cards, church bulletins, and menus. Because such items are often stored upright in filing cabinets, they are often referred to as "vertical files."
Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) has an extensive ephemera collection compiled by the Louisiana Research Collection that contains fliers, brochures, menus, and pamphlets from Louisiana and New Orleans related to the following subjects:
- Restaurants and nightclubs
- Heritage and preservation societies
- LGBT businesses and organizations
- African American businesses and organizations
- Horticultural societies and garden clubs
- Social welfare and charitable organizations
- Synagogues, churches, and religious groups
- Theaters, cabarets, and performing arts clubs
- Neighborhood and community organizations
- Social, ethnic, and fraternal organizations
- Art societies, galleries, fairs, and auctions
- Hurricane Katrina recovery organizations
- Environmental and conservation groups
- Business and civic affairs societies
The collection is strong in art ephemera going to back to about 1900, political ephemera going back to about 1840, theatre ephemera going back to about 1820.
The TUSC ephemera collection on New Orleans and Louisiana history is indexed in a database that is not currently accessible. For more information, contact specialcollections@tulane.edu.
TUSC also maintains a collection of vertical files compiled by the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz. Containing information on people, bands, discography, and subjects relevant to New Orleans music and history, these vertical files include items such as newspaper clippings, correspondence, unpublished writings, ephemera, and journal articles, as well as public documents and official records.
Inventories are searchable via the PDFs linked below.
| Hogan Archive Vertical Files: Bands | |
| Hogan Archive Vertical Files: People | |
| Hogan Archive Vertical Files: Subjects |